This invention relates to the production of confections, and, more particularly, relates to the manufacture of multicolored marshmallow, nougat and similar aerated confection products.
As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,847,311, 3,062,611, 3,220,853 and 3,607,309, marshmallows and similar confections are conventionally manufactured by extruding a heated, aerated confection blend to form multiple strands. The extruded strands may be coated with starch, powdered sugar or mixtures thereof to prevent sticking of the strands to each other, and cut transversely to their longitudinal axes to form confection products of desired size. By simultaneously extruding multiple strands of different color, flavor, texture and/or cross section prior to cutting of the multiple strands, a colorful and appealing blend of confection pieces, each of a single color, may be continuously manufactured which has substantial consumer appeal as a snack item or as a component of another food product such as a breakfast cereal. It would also be desirable to manufacture individual confection pieces of various shapes which are also multicolored. However, the high speed manufacture of multicolored aerated confection pieces presents difficulties, for example, including problems relating to variation of the rheological properties of the aerated confection blend with composition temperature and gas content. In addition, the tendency for the colors of differently colored confection blends to intermingle, or "bleed" during or after extrusion, or as a, result of cross cutting of the extruded strands, also is an impediment to the manufacture of multicolored confection pieces having sharply defined multicolored patterns. Moreover, because of the extrusion properties of the aerated, heated and pressurized confection blend, including its tendency to expand upon extrusion as a function of its aeration gas content, temperature and pressure, substantial difficulties are presented in achieving a final extruded product having the desired placement, shape and cross section of the different colored zones of an extruded product.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide methods for the production of multicolored, aerated confection products. Another object is to provide a novel extrusion apparatus for the high speed production of multicolored confection products, which can be accurately controlled to provide multicolored confection products of uniformly high quality. These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.